March 10, 2015

Posted by Bill Esterson on March 10, 2015

The Conservative-led government believes that helping a few people at the top helps everyone else. But the Conservative plan has failed.

The economic recovery has benefited a few people, mostly at the top, but for the majority, living standards have fallen sharply since the Conservatives took over five years ago and there is little sign of improvement for many people.

There is a better plan.

Labour believes that we only succeed as a country if ordinary working people succeed not when just a few at the top succeed.

That’s why Labour’s plan offers a better future: for living standards, for the next generation, and for the NHS.

The Tories and the Lib Dems are taking Britain’s families backwards and when pensioners only get 87p a week extra, something has gone seriously wrong.

Labour will make sure pensioners are looked after.

The last Labour government brought in winter fuel payments and pensioner credits along with free eye tests and TV licences.

Labour will protect pensioners’ incomes and make sure that free bus passes are protected.

And any pensioner on less than £42,000 a year will keep their winter fuel payment as well.

On average, people in Formby, Crosby and Maghull are £1,600 a year worse off since the Tories came to power in 2010.

This is the first government since the 1930s where people are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

The recovery has not reached the kitchen tables of working people under this government.

We know what five more years of the Tories would bring because we’ve seen the last five years.

The Tories want to cut spending back to the levels last seen in the 1930s, when there wasn’t even an NHS and you had to pay to go and see the doctor.

The Tories will continue to give tax cuts to millionaires and build an economy that rewards only the privileged.

Working people can’t afford five more years of the Tories.

And the NHS as we know it simply won’t survive five more years of the Tories.

Labour will ensure the recovery reaches kitchen tables across Britain.

We will invest in and improve our NHS, with 8,000 more doctors and 20,000 more nurses, so it has time to care for you and your family.

We have a better plan for the next generation: a guaranteed apprenticeship for every school leaver that gets the grades, and get at least 200,000 homes built a year where local people need them not just for the benefit of developers.

We have a better plan for living standards: we will freeze energy bills until 2017 so they can fall but not rise, and raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour.

And we’ll end the exploitation of zero hours contracts.

The plan of the Tory government has failed to deliver for people in my constituency.

We need a better plan that works for the majority of people and I shall be doing all I can to put that plan into practice.

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